World Series Cup
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The World Series Cup was the name of the annual cricket tournament that took place in Australia every year between the home side and two touring teams. This was the very first of the one day international (ODI) triangular tournaments.
The series first took place the season after World Series Cricket ended, 1979-80, and it continued with their innovations such as floodlit cricket, the white ball and coloured clothing. In the initial season, England still wore their traditional whites whilst Australia appeared in yellow and the West Indies in lilac.
New Zealand initially wore a "black and tan" (beige) uniform, which would later inspire the outfits of the Beige Brigade. Latterly they appeared in a variation of its All Blacks uniforms, such as black body with white sleeves or reversed. India played in light blue and yellow, Pakistan in green and blue and Sri Lanka played in yellow and dark blue.
There were usually 12 qualifying matches in venues all over the country:
- Adelaide Oval,
- 'Gabba, Brisbane,
- Bellerive Oval, Hobart,
- WACA Ground, Perth
- Sydney Cricket Ground
- Melbourne Cricket Ground
With the best-of-three finals (A few seasons there was the best of 5) being held at Melbourne or Sydney.
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[edit] WSC Innovations
- 1979-80's World Series Cup was the first official matches to be playing in coloured clothing, to use white balls, black sightscreens and umpires to wear non-traditional colours (i.e. black).
- 1988-89's series was the first one with the players names on the back of their shirts.
- 1995-96's WSC was the first tournament to include numbers on the back of players shirts.
[edit] Notable World Series Cup highlights
- 1979-80 - The West Indies were the first winners of the World Series Cup beating England in the best-of-three finals. England played all their matches in their traditional whites. Australia finished third in the table and did not qualify for the finals. This didn't happen again until 1996-97
- 1980-81's 3rd final - New Zealand needed 6 runs off the final ball to tie the match, when Australian captain Greg Chappell ordered his younger brother, Trevor, to bowl it underarm along the ground. Such tactics were subsequently banned.
- 1982-83 - David Gower hit 158 v New Zealand at Brisbane, this is the highest individual WSC score. In the second final - New Zealander Lance Cairns completed his fifty in 21 balls - then the fastest fifty in ODI's, against Australia at Melbourne. He also became the first to hit six sixes in an innings.
- 1983-84 - The first ever one day international tied match took place in the 2nd final at the MCG in 1984 between Australia and the West Indies when Carl Rackemann was run out going for the winning run. West Indies thought they had won the World Series Cup, but the organisers decreed a third game had to be played which West Indies won easily by 6 wickets.
- 1984-85 - An unbroken third-wicket partnership of 224 between Australian batsmen Dean Jones and Allan Border against Sri Lanka at Adelaide, was then the highest for any wicket in ODI. Australia's score 323-2 is the highest team total in WSC history and the victory by 232 runs the highest winning margin. West Indies won all ten of the qualifying matches and came back from one down to win the best of three finals series 2-1.
- 1985-86 - During match 13, Bruce Reid bowled the only WSC hat-trick v New Zealand at the SCG.
- 1986-87 - Mike Gatting's England won the World Series Cup for the only time beating West Indies and Australia 2-0 in the finals. That summer England won the Ashes Test Series and the Benson & Hedges Perth Challenge one day tournaments.
- 1987-88 - In the opening match of the series, Tony Dodemaide took 5-21 on his one day debut v Sri Lanka at Perth.
- 1988-89 - For the second time, the West Indies came back from one down to beat Australia in the best of three finals. Australia won the opening match by 2 runs at MCG. West Indies won by the 2nd match by 92 runs and the third final on faster scoring rate.
- 1991-92 - The second World Series Cup ended in a tie as West Indies and India both ended up with 126 in the first game of the series at Perth.
- 1992-93 - In match 3, in a rain shortened game Australia bowled out West Indies for 87 to win by 14 runs in Sydney. The following match at Hobart was a tied match between Australia and Pakistan. In match 8 at the SCG Phil Simmons took 4-3 in 10 overs for the West Indies, the current world record most economical bowling, to help bowl out Pakistan for 81. Pakistan performed even worse in the next game at Brisbane as they were bowled out again by the West Indies for 71.
- 1993-94 - Match 4 at the SCG, South Africa were bowled out for the lowest ever WSC total, 69. Australia won the best of three finals after being one down against South Africa.
- 1994-95 - A fourth team was introduced to the World Series, Australia A for the only time. The Australian selectors re-shuffled both their teams so that some players stepped up from the A team to the first team and others went the other way.
- 1995-96 - In the fifth match of the series, Australia needed four runs to win off the last ball of the match with one wicket remaining, Michael Bevan hit winning boundary for a stunning victory.
The World Series Cup was rebranded as the Carlton and United Series/VB Series when Benson & Hedges lost the sponsorship in 1996.
[edit] External links
[edit] Reference
- Limited Overs International Cricket - The Complete Record (1971-1996)
Bill Frindall Headline ISBN 0-7472-1173-6
